Wow! Lots of great responses. I'm sorry I didn't get back to the thread sooner, but I had some sort of wicked stomach bug yesterday and lay semi-conscious on the sofa most of the afternoon and evening. Much better today, thanks! Let me clarify the guest room use a bit. It will get used for 6-8 days over Christmas for dad and stepmom. The other stays would be a stepson who is stopping through, or my mom if she comes out for the weekend (she lives here, just on the other side of town and doesn't like to drive in the dark). In other words, no fancy guests! Several have mentioned that we need to make more use of the living room. I don't disagree. But having thought about it, there isn't really a good way to do so. Our living room is part of a large room that includes dining room, kitchen and a garden area, so it cannot be closed off in any way. Here is a shot of the room -- LR is at the far end: I really don't want all the flotsam and jetsam that computers and paperwork, etc. entail taking over the living room. I would say we are in the office 75% of the time we are home together (and awake). We hang out in the office because it is where the computers are (PCs rather than laptops), with desks, good chairs and good light. Then I saw the idea of DH getting his things together in one room so that could clear up the old music/workout room for me without losing the guest room. This is not altogether a bad idea. DH could have the current office as it is the biggest room. But I don't know that it would all fit very well. And then poor DH would have his office area in the industrial zone with the workout equipment and instrument storage. He really likes how we got the music/workout room set up, and I have to say I do, too. It keeps all the ugly stuff in one place. (Also, a lot of the instruments are mine, so it's not really fair for him to take the brunt of the ugly factor). Here is the room. so you can see the enormity of said horn rack (roughly 6+' x 6+' x 2' deep): Also, I'm not sure then where my personal PC would be. DH and I like to hang out together even if we are both on our PCs. This arrangement would have us in different rooms. I think the new Murphy beds are very cool. I saw an ad in the new Metropolitan Home and showed it to DH. But I'm not sure we want to invest that kind of money in the solution at this time (looks to be a minimum of $2,000, not including installation costs). Using the current set-up to include work in the current office: This would be the easiest solution and is what I am doing right now. But this is only my first week, so I am making do. It would mean two computers on the same desk. It would also mean that if DH is between contracts (He is an IT consultant) that he would be home in the same room with me while I am trying to work. And it wouldn't allow for that psychological separation of "work" space from "living" space. I think after all of that discussion it brings me back to sacrificing the guest room. That way I'll have a nice clean, distraction-free environment in which to work. I will look at sofa beds though, as an alternative to the aerobed. Or, now that I have a job again, I can use the income to put guests up in a hotel!

ncrealestateguy, thank you for money saving tip on pool chemicals. I will check out the poolcalculator website. This will hopefully offset some cost in running pool equipment + in pool opening/closing. The previous owners spent years on building the pool and the surrounding deck and waterfall. I wouldn't want to undo their hard work by filling in the pool.. stir_fryi, our house is in a nice neighborhood, which is surrounded by woods. Our 1 acre is cleared, mostly flat land. Kids can definitely ride bicycles and play football on it. (Occasionally, I see neighbors' kids riding small motorcycles in their yard & on the streets in our neighborhood. What luxurious toys they have!) Edit to add: Given the current housing market, if we sell the house now, we would most likely not gain anything financially (after factoring in all the costs related to selling & moving). If the current market were similar to 2004 or early 2005, we would probably be able to pocket some profit, but I don't think it would be close to half million.. This post was edited by ILoveCookie on Tue, Apr 9, 13 at 12:16

Dining rooms really do require some thought when there's symmetry involved as in your plan. The lighting fixture is usually centered over the table, so you must know where it will go early on. It is also usually centered on the window when the window is located where yours is, and also on the Foyer doorway when it looks like yours. Will you have a buffet and/or china cabinet? If either is on the long wall opposite the wide Foyer doorway, the window might be shifted to the left, and you would have to consider how this would affect the space left for seating around the table, as well as the front elevation. If neither is on this wall, you'd want to have a focal point from the Foyer doorway--a group of pictures, a large painting, etc. on the long wall. If either is on the wall to the left of the Butler's Pantry, you would also have to consider how much space would be left for seating, and possible take some space from the Pantry and B. Pantry. If you did the latter, I'd get rid of the B. Pantry by turning the cabinet to face the hall, and make it a "To Go" setup--keys, charging station, mail sorting, travel stuff, etc. Or extend the Mudroom. It also might change how wide you want the opening to the Foyer on the "north" end. The Pantry can be any depth down to a finished 9" inside, and could be quite wide with 2 or 3 doors to make everything easily accessible. I saw one like this in a model home, and liked it so much that I tried unsuccessfully to work it into my plan. To have a place for some larger items, I think a pantry with about a 15" finished interior would be sufficient, but it depends on what YOU plan to put in there besides cans & normal sized grocery items. I hope others can add to this from their DR experiences. Anne

I'm enjoying churning over the challenge of your kitchen. I think I'm going through withdrawals now that our house is finishing up. This is an idea with the constraint of keeping plumbing in place and not removing walls. Here's what I did: 1) tried to get as much distance between the sink and the range as possible without moving utilities 2) Added a wall at the entrance to the family room that is the same width as the wall on the other side of the entrance; looking from the family room toward the kitchen the walls framing the opening should be equal widths. 3) Angled the island parallel with the wall with the existing laundry so it looks intentional and also create more comfortable counter seating for 3 kiddos. 4) To add storage,but not do anything that competes with the ceiling transition to the morning room, I added base cabinets to the morning room side of the kitchen proper. It's essentially a big peninsula with no seating. 5) Be mindful of Ice-Water-Stone-Fire. The mantra that has changed the way I will evaluate kitchens forevermore :-) I'm going to see if I can plug this into the IKEA planner quickly